We Won’t Be Out-Cronyied!

Export-Import Bank President Fred Hochberg proclaims that “It is our job at Ex-Im to level the playing field. If we let our charter expire, it will amount to unilateral disarmament and nothing would please the other 59 export credit agencies around the world more” (“U.S. Ex-Im chief defends bank as critics take aim[2],” April 4).

Translation: “It is our job at Ex-Im to unjustifiably bankroll our crony capitalists every bit as fully as other governments unjustifiably bankroll theirs. If we let our charter expire, it will amount to unilateral refusal to warp our economy and nothing would please the hundreds of millions of consumers and taxpayers in America more. But who cares about them, given their ignorance of the fact that they are being fleeced?”

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030